


shooting love.

by luvcafes



Category: Produce 101 (TV), Wanna One (Band)
Genre: Jinhwi Fic Fest Round 1, Jinhwi is endgame, M/M, also this was way longer than i wanted it to be so sorry if its word vomit, i made it too angsty im sorry laboum, i think i changed writing styles in this 30 times sorry lmao, soulmate!AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-23
Updated: 2017-09-23
Packaged: 2019-01-04 06:14:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12163149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/luvcafes/pseuds/luvcafes
Summary: jinyoung didn't know love was so difficult.





	shooting love.

**Author's Note:**

> this is my entry for the jinhwi fic fest round 1. my prompt was #43, shooting love by laboum

in the 1700 years of his life, bae jinyoung has never missed a shot.

his eyebrows furrowed in the middle of his forehead, the noise of his arrow skipping across the floor particularly loud against his ears. after a few seconds, the arrow disappeared, as if it had never existed in the first place. hm, he never knew they did that. the thought led him back to his problem, he had missed. he spared a worrying glance to his supervisor, his tense shoulders relaxing when he saw that minhyun was meters above him, probably making sure that woojin wasn’t making the mistakes he had been making. the only difference between them was that jinyoung had been doing his job for 300 years, and woojin had just started.

he couldn’t say he didn’t know why he was so hesitant with this shot. it was obvious to everyone around him. this was going to be his last job before he was officially let off. he had known for around 16 years now.

it was common practice for cupids to be let off their jobs to be with their soulmates as humans once fate put their soulmate’s name paired with theirs on their list. you always know who your human partner is, because you get shot to fall in love with them when they’re born.

jinyoung will never forget the day he began loving daehwi. it began with jihoon telling him that he was lucky, before backing up and aiming an arrow at him. at first, jinyoung had been confused, but he had little time to relish in it due to the following intense pain of jihoon’s arrow piercing through his chest, which was then interrupted by the warmest feeling jinyoung had felt in his life and a name being the only thing he could think about.

(as much as jihoon grimaced, it only took a few months for lai guanlin -> park jihoon to show up on jinyoung’s list, he hasn’t heard the older boy complain since.)

he’s been seeing the same face in his dreams for 16 years, and he’s been waiting for this moment for so long, so why was he messing up so badly? he pulled out another arrow, carving his name into it and aiming at the blonde-haired boy again. his hands were trembling, but he wasn’t exactly sure if it was out of anticipation or anxiety. sure, they were fated to be together, but jinyoung couldn’t help but be afraid that daehwi wouldn’t actually like him, that there had been some mistake and that he would be stuck head over heels for some human who had no idea who he was.

the arrow flew across the area, but although jinyoung had sworn he had a clear shot, daehwi dropped onto the grass of the park seconds before the arrow was supposed to hit. this was getting a bit ridiculous. after so many years of having a spotless record when it came to accuracy, could not hit his mark for the life of him the only time it really matters. it certainly didn’t help that daehwi was surrounded by his 3 friends nearly every second of the day, but jinyoung was generally better than this. he didn’t hold the division record for hitting a target in the largest crowd for nothing after all. he wish he didn’t know why this was so difficult.

-

fifty three arrows.

that was just about a whole month’s worth of arrows, and he had spent them all in one day, on the same ridiculously important target. jinyoung was on overtime. at this point, he had no one but himself to blame for his unusual inability to be accurate with his shots. he had waited the entire day, but he found it amazingly difficult to find a moment where daehwi stood still with a clear shot of his chest in view for more than 2 seconds. it was infuriating. jinyoung had been monitoring daehwi’s entire day for the past 13 hours, and it was safe to say how baffled he was that he was rarely ever alone. this, of course, made his job more difficult than he was making it himself.

it was nine pm. this was the first time daehwi had been completely alone in the past 5 hours. jinyoung was nearly about to combust in anticipation. hypothetically, this would be the shot. he had it lined up perfectly, but attempt numbers 22, 34, 41, 45, and 50 all seemed to say that aiming perfectly could not guarantee anything. at this point though, he had nothing to lose, so he shot.

looking back on it, it all seemed anticlimactic. on the one shot that jinyoung had said “fuck it, i’ll just shoot anyway,” he made it. it was irritatingly bittersweet. on one hand, he had finally made his shot, on the other, he had used so much effort only to get it when he wasn’t trying. he would have started to laugh, but his vision suddenly cut to black.

he woke up in an unfamiliar area, wearing clothes that definitely weren’t his uniform, and with a strange feeling of loss. his wings were gone, that much he could tell. he had expected this, but it didn’t necessarily explain where he was at all. while he had no doubt that he would be left somewhere more preferable that the middle of the street, he had never really cared enough to find out where he would end up going once he found his soulmate. from what he could tell, it seemed like he at least had a place to stay. he ventured out of the bed he had woken up in, leaving the room altogether. not long after he began wondering around the room he found himself in, he found a note placed on the counter, along with a bundle of documents and items he was sure had to do with him being a real person now.

“congratulations on graduating from the cupid program, we wish you luck in your future endeavors as a human. you’ll find your legal documents next to this note. in regards to your finances, you will be supported for approximately two months, but after that you will have to fend for yourself. it is expected for you to locate your soulmate within the next three to five days. if anything goes wrong, you know who to call. jihoon also told me to write that you better not forget about him. hopefully you’ll see all of us soon.

best regards,  
minhyun, and the rest of seoul cupid unit 101”

jinyoung couldn’t help but have a smile spread across his face. he’d miss his friends, but he supposed he‘d see them eventually. he put the note down, not wanting to get too sentimental just yet. he had some looking to do, after all.

-

with all the time he had spent gearing up for the moment he would meet daehwi in person, one would think that jinyoung would know what to say. in truth, he had tried rehearsing thousands of scenarios under his breath for as long as he could remember, but it seemed like he had a knack for forgetting important things like how to act in a social situation under the incredible pressure of staring at the human embodiment of the sun.

daehwi, to jinyoung’s luck, was his classmate. jinyoung was legally required to attend high school, since he was technically only 17 no matter how long he had actually been on earth. he guessed he would derive fun out of pleasantly surprising his history teacher. either way he looked at it, the technicality had brought him to daehwi, who beamed at him every time he walked in on his first day. they had four classes together, and by the end of the day daehwi had convinced jinyoung to join choir with him too. on top of the fact that jinyoung made the conscious decision to sit as close to daehwi in every class he could, the whole experience made jinyoung feel like the luckiest person on earth.

it was simultaneously the best and most scariest thing he had ever experience in his life. he knew, in the end, things would work out, he had personally made sure, after all, but being in this state of both liking each other but only him knowing that was ridiculously tense. that, and at this point jinyoung thought he was in a good position to be competing for the world record for the most awkward person on earth. it wasn’t really his fault. he had never been the most sociable person in his unit, but he knew how to carry on more than basic conversation when prompted to. with daehwi, this was the most difficult thing you could ask him to do. before becoming a human, jinyoung couldn’t really imagine loving daehwi more than he already had been. he had never been more wrong in his life, it was somewhat embarrassing.

in front of daehwi he was a mess. it was safe to say that he wasn’t properly emotionally prepared for being within at most a few yards from the most important person in his life for most of the day. it made it a bit difficult to pay attention to most things, honestly. daehwi was like a magnet. it was less than surprisingly often that jinyoung would miss important things, like the bell, or someone asking him a question, in his idle admiration of daehwi. he relished in small things, like how his eyelids were uneven, or the beauty mark under his lips that was so small you couldn’t really notice it unless you looked, or the way his voice was brighter than the sun and the moon and the stars combined, lightly accented with something american, jinyoung supposed. god, jinyoung could listen to daehwi talk for the rest of his life. 

-

at this point, jinyoung thought he really might have to wait his whole life. it had been two months. jinyoung’s progress to this point was that he had fully integrated himself into daehwi’s extensive group of friends. it was nice, they were all nice, but jinyoung had guessed that he has another month before being around all of them makes him pop a blood vessel. jinyoung had never taken himself to be a particularly jealous person, but something about this situation made his blood boil.

he didn’t have anything against samuel in particular. he was a great person, and they got along just fine, like he did with everyone else, but the other boy couldn’t help but press his buttons. he couldn’t read minds or anything, and it was completely possible that he was reading too far into it, but jinyoung couldn’t stand how close daehwi and samuel were. it’s not that jinyoung was possessive or anything, samuel and daehwi were best friends, it would make sense that they were touchy together, but even with reasoning, jinyoung’s mood continued to sour whenever he saw them hold hands, or hug, or anything. it was horrible. he couldn’t even do anything to fix it, which made him even more frustrated, since even though he was ridiculously envious of samuel’s relationship with daehwi, there was nothing he could say. he couldn’t be that guy, everyone would hate him. at this point, it really didn’t matter whether or not jinyoung was daehwi’s soulmate or not, he was just his friend right now, and a very new one at that. the leverage he needed to put himself into a point of competition for daehwi’s undivided attention was something he wasn’t even close to having. 

he wished it wasn’t so easy for him to lose.

-

jinyoung couldn’t kid himself any longer. he was a professional when it came to liking people, at this point it was too obvious. it was march, he had been on earth for six months now, and during those six months, the most blatant thing he had seen on the planet was the way samuel looked at daehwi. no matter how much denial and excuses he tried to push on it, jinyoung couldn’t deceive himself into believing he didn’t have competition. he had looked into it, but nobody in his unit had remembered seeing samuel’s name on any of their lists. it was nerve wracking. 

\- 

he was too late. it was a bit funny, once he thought about it. it’s been 8 months. jinyoung had finally started planning on confessing, he was running out of time, he could tell. woojin had told him that samuel was planning on confessing. at the time, it all seemed a little surreal. he had practically rigged the game in his favor, so why did it feel like he couldn’t win? it was suffocating. 

he didn’t win. he couldn’t even get the words out of his mouth. daehwi had asked for them to meet up on the day he had planned, saying he had good news he wanted to share. jinyoung complied, of course, no matter what the sinking feeling in his gut told him. it was right. daehwi had flashed a great big smile at him, the one he loved too much, and told him that samuel had asked him out. jinyoung managed to keep a calm front for daehwi, not wanting him to find anything out. he shut out any trembling in his voice, and put on the best fake smile he could muster, before congratulating him. he deserved it, right? if daehwi was happy, jinyoung could deal with the immense pain in his chest, right? it would be selfish to drag anyone down with him. he was lying to himself, he knew. for the rest of the day, nothing he did could get the bitter taste of heartbreak out of his mouth. he had excused himself early that day, saying that he was sick and had ate too much. he was pretty sure daehwi didn’t suspect anything. 

in the 1701 years of his life, jinyoung had never cried over another person. 

-

twenty six months. 

it is a year and a half of hell for jinyoung. he was sure that something here was illegal, that seeing the person you love with someone else had to be filed under cruel and unusual punishment, but there was nothing he could do. he wasn’t a homewrecker, no matter how jealous he got, no matter how many times he wished that he was in samuel’s place. he was still samuel’s friend after all, even though jinyoung found it a bit too uncomfortable to hang out with him alone for a while. at this point, he didn’t really care how glaringly obvious his whole position was. daehwi was frustratingly oblivious to his feelings either way, so it didn’t really matter if everyone else knew. 

he lives in the small victories. when daehwi clings to him during a horror movie instead of samuel, the blindingly bright smiles he still gets sent, and most importantly, the time daehwi says that he was his best friend. 

(he likes to ignore the fact that it was followed by “you know, since samuel’s my boyfriend now.”)

it’s in those moments he is allowed to fully delude himself, that he’d still be completely happy if he was just allowed to stay by daehwi’s side. he’s aware of how much of a lie that is. 

in the twenty seventh month daehwi calls him at midnight, crying. samuel was moving back to america, he said. he had gotten into a college there, apparently. jinyoung would be happy for the guy if this wasn’t the way he learned about it. jinyoung stayed quiet. probing about something this touchy couldn’t be good. it was better to just let daehwi get everything out of his system first. 

from what he had gathered, samuel had been accepted, and he had known for about a month and a half before telling daehwi, and he was leaving in two weeks. he allegedly had friends over there he could live with. what really got daehwi was that he had waited so long to tell him. they had had a huge argument about it, which surprised jinyoung, as it was a rare sight for them to get annoyed with each other, much less fight. 

“do you think you guys could work long distance?” he decided to ask, even though his mind was screaming at him saying that it was the worst question to ask right now. daehwi sighed, that wasn’t necessarily a great sign. after a few seconds of silence he said that samuel had said that he had waited to say something for so long because he wanted to figure that out for himself. ultimately, samuel had decided that they should “take a break,” whatever that meant. jinyoung could tell he had started crying again. he grimaced, hearing daehwi in this state made him feel horrible. 

“give me ten minutes, i’m coming over.”

\- 

daehwi’s apartment wasn’t too far from his own, make his impulsive decision a little easier to follow through on. he couldn’t just sit around while daehwi was miserable. if he did, there would be no point in him waiting around for the sole reason that daehwi was happy. 

it took approximately nine minutes to reach the door to daehwi’s apartment, his cheeks rosy from the cold air outside. he was actually freezing, as he had forgotten to grab a jacket, but he didn’t care. he had barely stopped knocking when daehwi opened the door. they were silent. as jinyoung walked in, he realized things were a little worse than he thought they were. daehwi’s apartment was a mess. there were three empty tissue boxes on the coffee table, and jinyoung was pretty sure daehwi’s picture of him and samuel from their anniversary was smashed on the floor. accompanied with the dull smell of alcohol, he wasn’t sure what from, it was pretty bad. it put him on edge that daehwi was some level of intoxicated. it made the situation even more unpredictable than it already was. 

there was silence for a good minute. jinyoung wasn’t sure how to say what he wanted to, and he was pretty sure daehwi wasn’t exactly fit to be having any kind of conversation. the whole situation made him want to scream, at samuel for leaving daehwi like this, at daehwi for not knowing he deserved better than this, at himself for not doing anything about it. it was too much. he had begun to realize that they had spent a while standing there, staring.

jinyoung moved first. it was abrupt and certainly awkward, but jinyoung did his best to envelop daehwi in a hug, hoping that daehwi would understand everything he was thinking. well, not the “god i love you so much” parts, everything else though. jinyoung had never been the most gifted with his words, so he hoped that his gestures got his message across. they stayed like that for a while, jinyoung trying his best to be comforting, rubbing small circles along daehwi’s back. 

what seemed to be an eternity later, they broke apart. jinyoung wouldn’t mind staying like that forever, but at that point daehwi had stained the front of his shirt enough, it was a bit uncomfortable. daehwi asked him why he had come. he had said that he couldn’t have just left daehwi alone, he was his best friend after all. he tried ignoring the bitter sting in his mouth after saying that. now was not the time to remind himself of his feelings. 

-

they found themselves in front of daehwi’s tv, watching reruns of his favorite drama with two tubs of chocolate ice cream in front of them. it was mostly silent, although every few scenes there would be too-loud laughs coming from daehwi when something funny happened. it was clear that he was trying to convince jinyoung that he was fine. it only made jinyoung more concerned. he just wanted daehwi to be happy. he tried to not push it. 

the next time real conversation happens is at four am. jinyoung is dead tired. it had been a half an hour since daehwi had fell asleep, slumped against his shoulder in pure exhaustion. jinyoung had tried his best to not wake him up, being as gentle as possible as he tried to carry daehwi to his bed. his neck would probably hurt in the morning if he kept him in the position he had been in. the action was pretty easy, as daehwi was one of the skinniest people he had ever seen. even though that fact worried him most of the time, he was grateful for it in this instance. he had made motions to leave after he made sure daehwi was as comfortable as possible.

“don’t go,” jinyoung stopped in his tracks. god, was he weak. he turned around, looking at daehwi again. he could tell that he was just about two seconds from falling asleep again. “don’t leave me alone,” he said, quiet enough that jinyoung barely heard him. he was pretty sure daehwi could have convinced him to stay with that even if he wasn’t horribly in love with him. he tried to ignore his heart threatening to burst out of his chest for the time being, approaching daehwi once again. 

he accepted his defeat. if daehwi wanted him to stay, that was final, no matter how much jinyoung thought it would kill him. all he had to worry about was whether or not daehwi could feel his heartbeat. he hoped not. he had fallen asleep again, thankfully, but jinyoung was too antsy to follow him. jinyoung had tried to persuade daehwi to let him sleep on the couch instead of here, but daehwi wasn’t having any of it. he was stubborn like that. it didn’t help that when it came to daehwi, jinyoung had the weakest will in the world. if daehwi said “jump!” jinyoung would ask “how high?” so it wasn’t that much of a surprise when jinyoung followed his requests to sleep with him. 

he eventually was able to close his eyes, hoping to receive an hour or two of sleep before morning would come. if only out of exhaustion, sleep graced him, and daehwi was forgotten, out of his mind for a few moments of peace.

-

it is in the thirty third month that daehwi realizes. it’d been six months since samuel had contacted anyone, jinyoung’s not sure whether or not it’s from him not caring or daehwi not answering his calls. jinyoung slept at daehwi’s apartment more often than his own, but aside from that, everything seemed to be back to normal. daehwi was fine, he supposed. it certianly wasn’t like nothing had happened, daehwi refused to go anywhere or see anything that would remind him of samuel, and he’d get sad out of the blue for seemingly no reason, but he wasn’t inconsolable. 

jinyoung and daehwi’s relationship had moved into something of a gray area. if you asked, they’d say they were best friends, but the more time progressed, the more confused jinyoung got. jinyoung didn’t like getting his hopes up, but daehwi had become much more touchy with him than he had ever been. at this point, it was rare to find them next to each other without their fingers intertwined or arms linked. the whole thing gave jinyoung a whole bunch of mixed signals, but he forced himself to not read too much into it. 

they were attending one of daniel’s parties. jinyoung didn’t know daniel personally, but daehwi vouched that he was a nice person. jinyoung would say he wasn’t sure why he had decided to go, but he couldn’t kid himself. he couldn’t say no to daehwi, or risk him going by himself. it’s not that he didn’t trust daehwi to not take care of himself, he was just cautious. 

it was awfully crowded at the party, so jinyoung and daehwi decided to part ways once they arrived. while daehwi could certainly fend for himself in the crowd, jinyoung stuck by the wall. he wasn’t necessarily a party person. he did enjoy himself, the music daniel played wasn’t horrible, and a number of faceless people from the crowd loved to make sure he always had a drink in his hand. he made sure to look for daehwi in the mass of people to make sure he was fine once in awhile, but he stopped caring after a few hours. 

it’s sometime close to one in the morning when daehwi finds him, against the same wall he left him, considerably more drunk than he expected. his eyebrows are furrowed for some reason, jinyoung couldn’t figure it out, and he left after a few seconds, returning with a cup of water and pulling jinyoung out of his seat. the cold air hit him fast. it was certainly cold for june. they sat on the porch steps for a while, daewhi giving jinyoung the water he had brought and lightly rubbing his back. 

“you ok?” he asked, ringing in jinyoung’s ears for a while. he nodded, slowly. he was tired, that was for sure. he wasn’t exactly sure how much he had drank, but it was probably too much. daehwi had called for an uber, so he said they’d have to wait. jinyoung didn’t mind. he’d be fine with anything if daehwi was there with him. 

it took 30 minutes before they found themselves at home. daehwi passed him some advil, and a new glass of water, his head was killing him. “thank you for all of this, taking care of me, you know. i said i’d do that. that’s pretty funny. i guess.” jinyoung started, laying his head against daehwi’s shoulder. god, was he tired. “you’re such a better friend than i am, i’m sorry.”

“no, don’t say that, you’re the best friend i could ever ask for, jinyoung. you’re just tired.”

“what kind of friend can’t tell the truth?”

“what do you mean?”

“i can’t even tell you i love you, what kind of friend am i?”

“what?”

jinyoung’s heart dropped. he’d said it. fuck. he’d said it. he hadn’t even meant to say it. it just came out. fuck. he got up. daehwi was saying something. he couldn’t hear anything. fuck, his head hurt. he found himself in the bathroom, locked the door. daehwi must have followed him, and wouldn’t stop knocking on the door. jesus, he wished he’d stop doing that. his head was killing him. daehwi must hate him now. he’d ruined it. he must have. daehwi kept saying to open the door. he must be mad at him. god, he fucked up. jinyoung felt like puking, or dying, something close to that. he’d lose daehwi. he was sure, it killed him. he was shaking. the door opened. how did the door open? daehwi had a bobby pin in his hand. oh. he forgot daehwi could pick locks. shit. he closed his eyes. daehwi sighed. 

in this moment, jinyoung was sure he died and came back to life. he wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but daehwi blew him out of the water. when he opened his eyes, he found daehwi shaking his head, as if he had made an impulse decision. he was going to ask what was wrong, but daehwi cut him off. he walked closer to him, grabbed the collar of his sweatshirt, and kissed him. jinyoung froze. how was this happening? he was pretty sure his heart stopped working. he hadn’t even done anything, much less try and respond to daehwi’s action. when daehwi pulled away, jinyoung was sure he looked like an idiot. 

“i- wh- how- you never- are you- i’m-” jinyoung couldn’t form a coherent thought, much less a sentence that made sense. daehwi didn’t necessarily help, smiling and laughing at how flustered he was. god, was daehwi beautiful. jinyoung probably looked so dumb, smiling and gaping, but he didn’t care. daehwi liked him back, thank god, jinyoung was sure he couldn’t be happier than he was right now. jinyoung wasn’t sure what to do with himself, what do you do when the one thing you’ve been wanting to happen for nearly three years happens? it certainly didn’t help that he had never kissed anyone before. so they stared at each other for a while, awkwardly laughing at themselves and understanding what was happening without saying anything. at one point, jinyoung said fuck it. he grasped the sides of daehwi’s face and met his lips. this time was for real, no hesitation or surprise. in jinyoung’s mind, a symphony could have been playing and fireworks started going off.

he could stay like this forever, with an arrow shot through his heart for lee daehwi.


End file.
